This article explores the phenomenon of fake reality as a manifestation of an identity crisis under the dominance of neural network technologies and artificial intelligence. The author analyzes the ontological and ethical consequences of the widespread dissemination of imitative copies, which negate axiological guidelines and foster a relativistic environment. The article focuses on the transition of the entertainment component of communications into a dominant ethical-semantic environment, exploiting the ontological significance of the phenomenon of play. Through the lens of the history of technology (the invention of television “scanning”), it demonstrates how the objectification of reality and its fragmentation became the basis of a relativizing paradigm, giving rise to the phenomenon of the “crafty subject” who retains the capacity for irrational resistance. The article focuses on the ontological and epistemological potential of metaphor. In contrast to the technocratic relativism rooted in European rationalism (Hobbes, Bacon), metaphor is viewed not as a purely poetic device, but as a fundamental condition of human existence. Drawing on the ideas of Lakoff, Blumenberg, Ricoeur, and Jung, the author substantiates metaphor as an act of personal “self-assembly,” a primary form of responsibility to existence, and a unique means of overcoming existential chaos. It is precisely this metaphorical capacity, grounded in uniqueness and ethical effort, that counters the secondary nature and banality of artificial intelligence generations, serving as the key to preserving identity in the age of digital simulacra.

Keywords: fake reality, artificial intelligence, metaphor, identity, ontology, relativism, cunning subject, communication technologies, neural networks.

JEL Classification: L96, L82

For citation
Fortunatov A.N. Metaphors vs. Fakes: How Poetic Delights Confront Neural Network Technologies. Issues of Media Business, 2026, vol. 5, no. 2, pp. 5–13. https://doi.org/10.65324/imb027

This article examines the dialectic relationship between sports and media components in the modern sports industry. The authors examine several significant aspects of the development of football competitions and MMA in today's reality. It is widely recognized that a significant portion of today's audiences lack the ability to concentrate on a single subject for long periods of time. Consequently, many viewers are unable and unwilling to watch any piece of audiovisual information for extended periods of time. Instead of sports shows, they prefer YouTube, TikTok, and other similar platforms. Short videos with frequent content changes are particularly popular. Long matches, as well as multi-round combat sports, objectively lose their audience in such environments. This occurs even in the context of an objectively high level of athlete skill. The conclusion is drawn that in the modern world, the sports and media components of sport have entered into a clear conflict. This conflict is currently being resolved in favor of media coverage, not the sporting principle. It is noted that this state of affairs is characteristic of the postmodern era as a whole. The authors have demonstrated that the French structuralist philosopher Roland Barthes, in his work "Mythologies" written in the mid-20th century, anticipated certain aspects characteristic of contemporary mediatized sports. Barthes's ideas from half a century ago are beginning to acquire new connotations — as a harbinger of postmodern "ideology," as a reformatting of this entire philosophical system into a media-manipulative paradigm serving the institutions of late capitalism. These changes primarily concern both the fights themselves and other components of MMA as a spectacle. This state of affairs could lead to the demise of many sports clubs, as well as changes to competition rules aimed at increasing their media exposure.

Keywords: generation Z, MMA, UFC, martial arts, Barth, Mythologies, media.

JEL Classification: L96, L82

For citation
Fomenkov A.A., Averkiev A.D. The Interaction of Sports and Media in the Contemporary Sports Industry (in the Context of the Reception of Roland Barthes’s Ideas). Issues of Media Business, 2026, vol. 5, no. 2, pp. 14–20. https://doi.org/10.65324/imb028

The article provides a methodological justification of the communication approach as a promising avenue for renewing systems thinking under conditions of digital complexity and the interdisciplinary transformation of socio-humanitarian knowledge. Digital reality is conceptualized as a hybrid environment in which social processes are mediated by platforms, algorithms, and large-scale data sets, while systems models acquire a scope and complexity that generate the effect of epistemic opacity. It is shown that the shift from projects of a “general systems theory” to the analysis of digital complexity intensifies the problem of knowledge legitimacy, since the results of simulations and computational procedures are often trusted yet difficult to verify at the level of human control. As a methodological foundation, the article examines the network turn in social theory and the associated mediatization of late globalization theories, within which communication attains the status of a universal category capable of linking ontology, methodology, and epistemology in contemporary research. The central thesis is that the communication approach provides a flexible categorical language for systems analysis, making it possible to describe the social as a process of producing, circulating, and legitimizing meanings within multi-level communications. Through a reconstruction of social mythology, the article demonstrates that symbolic structures and social action are correlated through communicative regimes of reproduction. The applied potential of the approach for the philosophy of the social sciences is also substantiated, where it serves as an instrument for the critical support of concepts and methods in the humanities. The novelty of the study lies in integrating the communication approach into the paradigm of systems thinking as a means of overcoming reductionism, disciplinary gaps, and epistemic opacity. Its practical significance consists in proposing a methodological framework for analyzing subtle interdisciplinary fields where social, technological, and epistemic processes are intertwined.

Keywords: systems thinking, communication approach, digital complexity, epistemic opacity, mediatization, network turn, philosophy of the social sciences, social mythology.

The study was supported by grant No. 25-28-03014 from the Russian Science Foundation, “Historical Memory of Post-Soviet States: Media Strategies of Representing the Past and Memorial Wars”.

JEL Classification: L96, L82

For citation
Artamonov D.S., Balash V.A., Kazakov A.A., Melnichuk D.V. The Communication Approach within the Paradigm of Systems Thinking. Issues of Media Business, 2026, vol. 5, no. 2, pp. 21–35. https://doi.org/10.65324/imb029

The article examines the transformative role of artificial intelligence in shaping new aesthetic criteria for digital advertising. The artificial intelligence discussed in the article encompasses neural networks, machine learning algorithms, and other systems capable of processing and generating data. In the context of the digital transformation of the media industry, neural networks are acquiring a qualitatively new role — they are no longer merely tools for optimization but have become full‑fledged agents in shaping aesthetic standards. Through a comparative analysis of successful cases of using neural networks to create advertising materials, mechanisms of algorithmic influence on the visual component of content have been identified. It can be confidently stated that modern artificial intelligence does not merely automate and simplify content generation but actively introduces new parameters of visual appeal. On one hand, AI is increasingly better at creating what we call «statistically beautiful» — generated images that will be positively received by the majority, as neural network databases contain millions of successful advertising materials, from which the AI has extracted common patterns. On the other hand, neural networks are capable of breaking all the rules and creating unconventional images that, in turn, attract attention due to their uniqueness. Thus, AI simultaneously establishes new standards of beauty while also serving as a tool that enables their violation.

Keywords: artificial intelligence, neural networks, digital advertising, aesthetics, visual content, standards of attractiveness.

JEL Classification: L96, L82

For citation
Kuznetsova N.A., Kisevev V.A., Shaveleva M.B. Digital aesthetics: artificial intelligence as a generator of new visual criteria in advertising. Issues of Media Business, 2026, vol. 5, no. 2, pp. 36–43. https://doi.org/10.65324/imb030

The article examines the process of introducing digital technologies into modern political activity. Fascination with the idea of a “super smart society,” in which the successful integration of physical and cybernetic space will ensure happiness for every person, was taken as the conceptual basis of political strategy by many states. The pace of digitalization and related changes is growing exponentially. Political institutions are inertial, have a complex structure and, in pursuit of technological progress, fail to keep up and/or deliberately overlook an assessment of its human consequences. The author analyzes the risks of current communication transformations in the public administration system, the specifics of the mechanisms of legitimization of power, new tools for influencing the political moods and interests of the electorate through the prism of the role and significance of spirituality in society. Possible medium-term scenarios of accelerating technological development, the emergence of a new social hierarchy, norms and rules of life, the growing influence of transhumanism values are considered. Particular attention is paid to the Technat project. The results of the impact of digital communication technologies on traditional institutions of power were investigated. The probable challenges to national sovereignty in the context of the technological revolution, the problems of protecting sovereignty and individual rights, maintaining mental health and preserving human cultural identity are formulated.

Keywords: digitalization, political communications, technate, identity, artificial intelligence, values, media business, media.

JEL Classification: L96, L82

For citation
Orlinskaya O.M. Digital transformation of political communications in the social. Issues of Media Business, 2026, vol. 5, no. 2, pp. 44–52. https://doi.org/10.65324/imb031

Media materials provide and accompany all the main aspects of the functioning of “sportiki” (sports enforcers, athletic enforcers, drug market enforcers, athletic punishment groups) as a variant of outsourcing violence: recruiting perpetrators of punishments, searching for consumers of services, and executing orders received. The production and publication of media content involves customers, intermediaries, and the performers themselves. Job advertisements for “sportiki” explain their functions and basic requirements for the applicant; indicate the locality where the victim lives; contain information designed to motivate young people to earn money through physical violence. Video recording of sports stocks serves as a report on the quality of the order, which is the basis for further receipt of money. The videos show the process of punishing the guilty couriers who organizes drug caches and their apologies to drug traffickers. The publication of such materials on publicly available online platforms serves as a warning to other drug couriers against violating agreements with illegal online stores, and is also an advertisement for “drug shops” and demonstrates their “concern” for customers. Offers for potential customers of “sportiki” inform about various types of punishments known for reprisals against couriers who organizes drug caches. In addition, the services of negotiators, information gathering, law enforcement, debt collection and extortion of money are offered. Advertising messages also try to motivate people who are not related to the drug trade to use the services of “sportiki”, referring to the ease of hiring, affordable prices, possible discounts, efficiency, a wide geography of services, professionalism and experience, efficiency, anonymity and security.

Keywords: Intimidation campaigns, outsourcing of violence, videos of violence, darknet forums, contract violence, criminal videography, media resources, drug trafficking, violence, online recruitment, digital violence.

JEL Classification: L96, L82

For citation
Pankratov P.V. Trivialization of violence through the popularization of the activities of “sportiki” on social networks: mediatization as a form of criminalization. Issues of Media Business, 2026, vol. 5, no. 2, pp. 53–63. https://doi.org/10.65324/imb032

In this article, we attempt to demonstrate why Russian media landscape (in the broadest sense of the term) reflects a deep-seated rejection of postmodernism in its original European-American sense by the Russian culture. Whereas postmodernism implies fragmentation of standardized forms of cultural self-representation into distinct ‘subcultures’, each advocating its own idiosyncratic language, Russian visual communications (advertising, television, cinema, blogging) implicitly operate with a standardized set of clichés (editing, color grading, speech, etc.), thereby eliminating virtually all possibilities for creative expression within the media sphere. In such a paradoxical way, Russian culture both practices and reinforces conservatism and a tendency toward the centralization of meaning. This chapter seeks to analyze the issues arising from this internal contradiction and to answer the question of what is the function of media in Russia within this context. A structural analysis of the Russian media landscape entails identifying a non-obvious continuity linking the avant-garde of the early twentieth century, Socialist Realism, and contemporary marketing-driven visual culture. The unifying thread in this genealogy is the enduring conservatism of Russian culture, which manifests itself even in forms that mass culture does not ordinarily associate with conservatism or with deeply rooted cultural identity.

Keywords: media philosophy, Russian media, visual culture, avant-garde, socialist realism, capitalism, post-Soviet culture.

JEL Classification: L96, L82

For citation
Rodin I.V. "Postmodernism Doesn't Exist": The Standardization of the Russian Media Field as a Conservative Paradox. Issues of Media Business, 2026, vol. 5, no. 2, pp. 64–75. https://doi.org/10.65324/imb033

Responsibility, as an essential human trait, is rooted in the capacity for free choice, reflection, dialogue with the Other, and is formed within a cultural and historical space where norms and values do not suppress freedom, but rather establish its semantic boundaries. In the era of AI, this classical image of responsibility faces a fundamentally new challenge: systems capable of autonomous decision-making make us reconsider the concept of “subjectivity”. Increasingly, in the worldview of modern people, AI acts as an active agent (rather than a tool) and even a living entity, while the humans find themselves in the position of an object. A tendency to personify AI (“cyber-animism”) is consistently emerging in Russian-language media discourse: neiroset’ predskazala pogodu (the neural network predicted the weather); sprosit’ u bota (ask the bot); umnaya kolonka Alisa pomozhet (the smart speaker will help). “Subjectlessness” (V.A. Kutyrev) manifests itself in the actualization of attributes like bespilotnyi (unmanned), the inner form of which excludes humans from habitual activities. The question that arises here concerns the boundary between a tool and a subject, between algorithmic “action” and a genuine moral act. This article proposes a conceptual framework for analyzing the interaction between human subjectivity and AI through the lens of media language, which allows us to determine how language becomes a tool for redistributing responsibility. Philosophical analysis shows that even the most complex AI remains a product of human will: its “decisions” present an implementation of established rules, not an existential choice. Genuine subjectivity does not simply imply adaptation to the environment or behavior optimization, but the conscious appropriation of consequences which is impossible without an inner “Self” capable of self-awareness or moral judgment. AI lacks this core: its “autonomy” is merely a technical imitation limited by the boundaries of its design. Responsibility for its actions inevitably remains with the humans. The boundary of subjectivity lies where the algorithm ends and freedom begins as the burden of responsibility — something inaccessible to artificial intelligence. This is the ontological conclusion the authors of the article come to.

Keywords: ethics of responsibility, artificial intelligence, subject, subjectivity, subjectlessness, media discourse, linguistic worldview, media.

JEL Classification: L96, L82

For citation
Kolesova O.V., Marinova E.V. Responsibility for the “Self” as opposed to subjectivity of Artificial Intelligence (from observations of the modern media environment). Issues of Media Business, 2026, vol. 5, no. 2, pp. 76–88. https://doi.org/10.65324/imb034

This article explores the characteristics of new Russian glossy print publications that have appeared on the Russian media landscape since 2022. These publications are examined in the context of sociocultural changes in society. The article highlights the paradoxical status of glossy magazines in the era of digital information flow, which is increasing, in particular, due to neural network output (according to various estimates, neural networks now account for up to 50% of content). Society’s fatigue with impersonal neural network information is driving a search for alternative sources — both in form and content. By their very presence, print media demonstrate a detachment from the digital world, a kind of alternative mainstream narrative. The article notes the positive impact of new Russian glossy print publications on the overall cultural and intellectual atmosphere in society. The article emphasizes the connection with popular trends in modern society: nostalgia and intellectualization. Being a printed form, glossy magazines refer to print as a form of cultural memory, an intellectual tradition of reading thick literary journals. It also puts forward a hypothesis about the correspondence of new glossy periodicals with the fundamental values of Russian society. The article concludes that the new Russian glossy magazines realize such a media function as the transmission of fundamental meanings and values. The empirical base of the study consisted of issues of Russian magazines (2022–2025): “Rules of Life”, “Reading”, “The Editor’s Opinion May Not Coincide”, and “Moskvichka”. The research methodology is a systems approach, cultural analysis, and an analysis of the structural and substantive model of the print publication. The relevance of the topic of this study is determined by the promotion of Russian values, including through media channels. The purpose of the study is to analyze how the promoted Russian values ​​are embodied in the new Russian glossy magazines. The novelty lies in the study of axiological aspects in the new Russian glossy magazines.

Keywords: axiology, intellectual gloss, sociocultural changes, national context, values, traditional Russian values.

JEL Classification: L96, L82

For citation
Firulina E.G. Slow Journalism in Russian Glossy Media as a Format of Escapism in Digital Reality. Issues of Media Business, 2026, vol. 5, no. 2, pp. 89–97. https://doi.org/10.65324/imb035

This article examines the phenomenon of the body in a contemporary postmodern communicative situation, in which it acquires a new sociocultural role — not so much as a transmitter of meanings to the outside world, but rather a kind of “portal” for informational attacks on consciousness weary of a fake communicative reality. The body becomes a field of manipulative influence, seemingly intertwining its owner’s hopes for meanings alternative to postmodern discourse, on the one hand, and quasi-religious concepts that mimic an alternative to existing social norms, on the other. It analyzes classical and contemporary (online recruitment) methods of totalitarian sects, through which a person’s physical and social vulnerability is transformed into an object of a unique, cynical influence on consciousness. Particular attention is paid to the transfer of recruitment practices to the digital environment, where the illusion of respectability and concern for the body (through fitness and yoga communities) are proven mechanisms for recruitment into destructive cults. As a result, a situation arises in which the body is brought to an extreme degree of abstraction, turning into a simulacrum, a source of complete alienation from the outside world.

Keywords: totalitarian sects, destructive cults, body as a medium, mind manipulation, recruitment, information space, digital environment, postmodernism, identity, isolation.

JEL Classification: L96, L82

For citation
Seliverstova Yu.A., Kulemina G.A., Kulemin N.S. Digital Exploitation of Bodily Helplessness: Totalitarian Cults in the Contemporary Information Space. Issues of Media Business, 2026, vol. 5, no. 2, pp. 98–104. https://doi.org/10.65324/imb036

The article analyzes the specifics of the communicative space of students with different levels of responsibility. Special attention is paid to social responsibility. It is considered as a conscious manifestation of the value of “Responsibility” at the levels of the team and society. Research methods: questionnaire with closed and open questions, Schwartz and Bilsky value orientation test, Spielberg-Khanin questionnaire. Sample: 44 students (145 girls and 99 boys), average age 19.5±1,117. It was found that students with high scores on the Responsibility value orientation are more satisfied with life and less anxious than the rest of the sample. They spend more time communicating with experts and professionals, spend less time on entertainment content, bloggers, and media personalities, and place more importance on media, fiction, and movies as sources of information about the world. The differences become more pronounced in students with a conscious social responsibility. This was revealed by analyzing the responses to open-ended questions. The questions required students to express their understanding of mental constructs such as “social status,” “traditions,” and “patriotism.” Using the Mann-Whitney U-test, significant differences were identified between this group of students and the rest of the sample: high ratings of “Responsibility” as a value orientation; combining study and work; relatively low amounts of time spent on mass media and relatively high amounts of time spent communicating with experts and specialists; and relatively high ratings of the value of масс-media as source of information. Students with relatively low levels of the value orientation “Responsibility” have lower levels of satisfaction with various aspects of life, higher levels of anxiety, spend more time watching entertainment content, and have lower levels of importance placed on media as a source of information about the world.

Keywords: communicative space, responsibility, social responsibility, media studies, value orientations, media.

JEL Classification: L96, L82

For citation
Voskresenskaya N.G. Responsibility as a Value Category: On the Specifics of the Communicative Space of Student Youth. Issues of Media Business, 2026, vol. 5, no. 2, pp. 105–114. https://doi.org/10.65324/imb037

In the wake of the growing demand for local identity and authenticity, media and business are actively commercializing the cultural codes of Russian regions and communities. Today, these codes are formed mainly in the media field, where the interests of content creators, consumers and traditional speakers collide, which generates ethical and reputational risks. The article considers the “friend — stranger — other” dilemma as central to modern creative industries. The authors raise the question of the boundary between cultural appropriation, exploiting tradition as “raw materials,” and partnership based on respect and co-authorship. Drawing on Stuart Hall’s theory of representation and Benedict Anderson’s concept of “imagined communities,” the study offers a toolkit for analyzing cultural code statuses in media. The methodology includes critical discourse analysis of mediatexts, narrative analysis, and the case-stady method. The empirical base consists of two projects from Nizhny Novgorod: the project for the development of historical territories “Reserved Quarters” and the store of local brands “ Youth”. Using their material, the authors demonstrate the transition from the model of appropriation (“selling someone else’s”) to ethical monetization through co-authorship, introducing the concept of a “co-created” cultural code as a fourth, constructive status. Unlike the statuses of “friend”, “stranger” or “sold”, the “co-created” code assumes the distribution of recognition and profit among all participants, turning cultural bearers from suppliers of raw materials into full-fledged actors. In conclusion, it is concluded that such a model not only removes reputational risks, but also forms a stable competitive advantage in the impression economy, where audience trust becomes a key asset.

Keywords: cultural code, media, appropriation, co-authorship, identity, creative industries, impression economy.

JEL Classification: L96, L82

For citation
Obidina Yu.S., Gapeenkova M.Yu. Ours, Alien, Co-Created: How Do Media Transform Cultural Code into an Asset? Issues of Media Business, 2026, vol. 5, no. 2, pp. 115–124. https://doi.org/10.65324/imb038

Problem Statement. In contemporary media reality, subjectivity represents an embodied total relativity, based on the recursive nature of mass media self-reproduction. Attempts to concretize the media subject encounter phenomena of conscious withdrawal, elimination, and denial of the possibility of “being a subject,” necessitating a revision of the theoretical foundations of its analysis. Research Objective. To identify the temporological foundations of media quasi-subjectivity through a “reverse” approach — from the phenomenon of the “crafty subject” and “flash subject” to an analysis of the “infinite present” as an ontological trap. The terms used are the author’s own, having emerged from many years of reflection on this topic. Results. It is shown that technological evolution (from the Nipkow disk to electronic scanning and algorithmic presentism) perpetuates the gap between the pre-subjective Self and the communicative We, replacing the existential experience of the present with technical simulation. The speed of information processes is becoming an ethical imperative, generating clip-based consciousness, boredom, and hypnotic trance, which, combined, create an irresistible “today,” an “enduring present.” Conclusions. The “infinite present” serves as the basis for media quasi-subjectivity, eliminating responsibility for the future and for human relationships with the Other. However, subjective deceit, rooted in the ontological rupture, retains the potential for nonconformism and can be actualized with the restoration of direct interpersonal interaction.

Keywords: media subjectivity, quasi-subject, infinite present, temporology, algorithmic presentism, différance, crafty subject, excapism, clip consciousness, transhumanism, media.

JEL Classification: L96, L82

For citation
Fortunatov A.N. The “Endless Present” as a Basis for Medial Quasi-Subjectivity. Issues of Media Business, 2026, vol. 5, no. 2, pp. 125–135. https://doi.org/10.65324/imb039

The article presents an analytical review of how automation has evolved in journalism and PR-tech, treated as a particular instance of applied computing within the communication professions. The analysis is anchored in the framework of D. Acemoglu and P. Restrepo, which distinguishes between the displacement effect — the elimination of existing work tasks — and the reinstatement (or restoration) effect, by which new tasks are created. Drawing on evidence from no-code platforms, agentic systems, Computer Use tools, multi-agent orchestration, and the Russian media-monitoring market, the paper argues that automation does not abolish journalism and PR as professional domains; rather, it redistributes the center of gravity between routine execution and the design of sociotechnical loops. An institutional framework for PR-tech is proposed, encompassing layers of data, integrations, models, agentic action, and organizational governance. Particular attention is given to the shifting locus of specification: natural language increasingly becomes the medium through which goals, constraints, and quality criteria for automated systems are articulated. The paper shows that demand for work tasks is migrating from the drafting of standardized texts, manual monitoring, and the upkeep of media lists toward competencies in context engineering, auditing of automated outputs, data stewardship, the design of human-in-the-loop architectures, and ethical oversight. The author concludes that the contemporary PR professional requires a dual competence: preserving the craft of the profession while acquiring the architectural thinking needed to design robust, auditable, and accountable automated communication stacks.

Keywords: communication automation, artificial intelligence, no-code, agentic systems, work tasks, displacement effect, reinstatement effect, PR-tech.

JEL Classification: L96, L82

For citation
Sokolov A.V. The Evolution of Automation in PR: An Institutional Framework for PR-tech and the Transformation of Work Tasks. Issues of Media Business, 2026, vol. 5, no. 2, pp. 136–145. https://doi.org/10.65324/imb040